Tiramisu Cupcakes

I accidentally told Brian that my used craft sale was yesterday... nope...I accidentally messed up the dates. So he had to wake up early two days in a row (on a weekend -- the horrors!). As a way to repay, I decided to make him some tasty cupcakes.

Martha Stewart, my baking hero, is coming out with a new cupcake book. One of the recipes in it is a Tiramisu cupcake. It sounded tasty and once again, I needed an excuse to use the kitchen aide. Oh it's so pretty!

**Pic from MarthaStewart.com - I can't get a pic like that if I tried.

Once again, Martha didn't let me down. The cupcake was tasty and fluff-tastic! The coffee touch was great and it was cool to see it seep in. I would probably recommend just a little more coffee since it didn't seep as well as I thought it would. The icing -- well, I love me some mascarpone frosting and it was quite tasty.

All that said though, I will admit that there was a lot of work involved and I think you could find an easier base cupcake. While I understand the science behind beating an egg/sugar mixture over a pot of simmering water, there are easier ways to achieve a fluffy cupcake. Perhaps the Cake Doctor will have some easier suggestions for those of you who don't have 2 hours to make a cupcake...

Molten Cake

Heehee, I'm a smallhanded person too! I figured I'd start my first post with a recipe for Kahlua molten cake. You can never go wrong with chocolate and booze... right? ;-D

I based this recipe off of a recipe from Everyday Foods (my favorite source of simple recipes). We made a variation of this while I was still in NC so I knew it wasn't too complicated. I wanted to christen my new Kitchen Aide** with a tried and true recipe.

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for ramekins
• 1/3 cup confectioners sugar, plus more for ramekins and serving
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon Kahlua (we used a hazelnut Kahlua)
  
• Pinch salt
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Prep two ramekins (or small little cake pans or something...) and preheat oven to 400
Melt chocolate and butter together. (Although I'll admit that I actually only melted the chocolate and then creamed the butter... still tasty)
Mix sugar, egg, yolk, kahlua and salt in small bowl. Whisk in chocolate mixture.
Whisk in flour until just mixed - important not to overmix. Pour into ramekins.
Pop the suckers into the oven (400 F) for about 10 minutes. Your favorite poking utensil should come out clean on the edge and not so much in the middle.

Eat quickly with some tasty whipped cream. Letting it sit too long means less molteny more cakey...

**Disclaimer - the cake disappeared before we could take a pic... sorry dudes. Just imagine chocolately goodness

**The stand mixer is not necessary (or even recommended) for this recipe. This post writer just loves her mixer!

Peaches & Cream Cake

Amanda's Birthday was one of the summer birthdays and I wanted to create something light and fruity. Unfortunately I was also crunched for time, so I pulled out a recipe that someone from work recommended to me. It is a cake recipe based on a cake mix, which I am generally against. I am a control freak and like to know of all the ingredients that go into cakes. Additionally, I try to scale back on sugar whenever I can. However, this cake turned out to be moist, delicious and not to sweet. It was such a hit that I made it again for my brother's birthday later that fall. My family really enjoyed it, which says a lot, since they generally do not enjoy very sweet desserts. Also, one last sidenote: This is an easy, introductory cake for someone who wants to try their hand at baking.

Peaches & Cream Cake
adapted from Anne Byrn, "The Cake Mix Doctor"

Ingredients:
* vegetable shortening, for greasing cake pans
* flour, for dusting cake pans
* 1 can (29 oz) peach halves, drained and syrup reserved
* 1 pkg yellow cake mix
* 8 tbsp butter, melted
* 4 eggs
* 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
* Fresh Whipped Cream (recipe to follow)

Directions:
01. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
02. Grease two 9" cake pans with vegetable shortening; dust with flour; shake out excess flour.
03. Place 8 peach halves in a food processor fitted with steel blades; process until smooth.
04. Reserve 3/4 cup peach syrup and the rest of the peach halves.
05. Place cake mix & melted butter in a mixing bowl; mix on low speed, adding one egg at a time.
06. Add peach puree; add vanilla extract; mix on high for 2-3 minutes.
07. Divide batter into both cake pans evenly.
08. Bake for 28-32 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out dry.
09. Remove pans from oven; cool for 10 minutes.
10. Remove cakes from the pan; poke holes with toothpick into cake while warm.
11. Drizzle 1/4 cup of reserved syrup juices on each cake; let cool completely.

Fresh Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1 pkg Dr. Oetke's Vanilla Sugar
* 1/4 cup peach syrup

Directions:
01. Whip heavy cream in chilled bowl & chilled beaters.
02. When soft peaks form, add Dr. Oetke's Vanilla Sugar.
03. Drizzle in peach syrup.

Assembly Directions:
01. Cut remaining peach halves into slices for decorating.
02. Place one cake right side up; spread with whipped cream.
03. Place second cake right side up on first; frost top & sides with remainder of whipped cream.
04. Assemble peach slices on top of the cake.

Tips & Tricks:
* Do not over beat the whipped cream.
* If you do not have Dr. Oetke's Vanilla Sugar at hand, substituting 1 tbsp confectioner's sugar & 1 tsp pure vanilla extract will yield just as tasty a whipped cream.
* Alternative to decorating the cake with peach slices, cubing the peaches and adding them to 1/3 the whipped cream to use as the center filling also works.